I was in our local Lowes store yesterday and they had a bundle of five 7 1/4” Kobalt 24 tooth carbide blades in a hard plastic holder for $19.99. With my veteran discount that ended up less than $4 a blade including tax.

I bought them thinking I could use them for certain cuts that I didn’t want to use my good blades on with my 10 inch contractors saw. Same hole size. Will work on most cuts.

When I got home I decided to put on a same size new Irwin blade I got on sale at RKO some time back instead of opening the new blades I just bought in case I wanted to return them.

Boy was I surprised! That blade cut through the 1/4” paneling from Lowes ( very hard 1/4 hardboard) like it was butter. It made almost no noise, no sparks and dust collection was great. The edge it cut on was as smooth as you could ever ask with no chipping of the finish side.

My concern is this; is it dangerous to use a small blade like this on a saw of this type? Will the speed be a factor that could cause trouble for the blade as for a smaller blade size? Anyone have experience to pass on about this? larry

-- Just a barn cat, now gone to cat heaven.

11 replies so far

I’ve never tried it, but Matthias Wandel uses 7-1/4 circ saw blades in his table saw and has a short article about it. I don’t know how speed would be a problem, as circular saws spin faster than table saws. That would lead to a lower blade rim speed than the saws and blades are designed for, so you might need to adjust feed rate accordingly.

-- "Good judgement is the result of experience. A lot of experience is the result of poor judgement."

There should be no problem using a smaller diameter blade.Provided that, the blade is rated for the RPMs that the saw developes.An 8” stacked dado set is certainly proof of that.

The only potential problem would be with through cuts in thicker, harder material.The smaller diameter blade is not really traveling as fast as a 10” blade.So thick material would need a slower feed rate.

That’s all I got….

-- Randy-- I may not be good...but I am slow! If good things come to those who wait.... Why is procrastination a bad thing?

Using a smaller blade is not a problem at all. With a smaller diameter, the tips are travelling slower than they would on a 10” blade, so you may have to feed the stock a bit slower, but that’s about it (besides the obvious height limitation).

Cheers,Brad

-- Brad in FL - To be old and wise, you must first be young and stupid

Obviously, the smaller diameter will change the speed at the edge of the blade. This will require a slower feed rate. The only danger I could see is if the table saw’s rpm is significantly different from the rpm of a circular saw. Popular mechanics that a typical circular saw rpm is 5800. Carbide Processors that the maximum rpm of a table saw with a 7 1/2 inch blade is 9000 and for a 10 inch blade is 6500. So you should be ok.

That 5-pack of blades (in whole or in part) can be used together as a dado set. Use spacers in between the blades so their teeth do not make contact with each other.Here is an article on just such an idea.

Completely agree with WoodNSawdust. But it’s so nice that you ask before you start to deals with it. I usually try every new stuff even don’t think about probable danger. But you, guys remind me – first, must to think before trying.

Wow, I would never have thought of that being even possible splatman. Thanks for the info as I may try that and thanks for the links you guys. I’m sure more people than just I have clicked on them. larry

As others have stated, I too use the ultra thin kerf 7 1/4” blades especially when making several cuts in some expensive stock or cutting sections for an end grain cutting board. The kerf is close to half that of a thin kerf 10” blade.